Devin McGlockton
Vanderbilt’s turnaround men’s basketball season has produced the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2017.
Lipscomb, Tennessee and Memphis are also headed to the Big Dance.
The Commodores (20-12), who were picked to finish 16th in the SEC, are the No. 10 seed in the East Region and will face No. 7 seed St. Mary’s (28-5) on Friday in Cleveland. Vandy could face an SEC foe if it advances into the second round, as the ’Dores would take on the winner of Alabama-Robert Morris.
Lipscomb (25-9) will participate in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history, with the first time in 2018. The Bisons, who earned an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament, are the No. 14 seed in the South Region and will face No. 3 seed Iowa State (24-9) on Friday in Milwaukee.
Tennessee (27-7) is the Midwest Region’s No. 2 seed after falling to Florida in the SEC Tournament final Sunday at Bridgestone Arena. The Vols will take on Wofford (19-15), the Southern Conference Tournament winners, Thursday in Lexington, Ky. If Tennessee advances, the team would face the winner of the UCLA-Utah State game.
Memphis (29-5) is the No. 5 seed in the West Region after winning the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship Sunday, and the Tigers will take on No. 12 seed Colorado State (25-9) on Friday in Seattle. The Rams have won 10 straight games and captured the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
A desperate Texas team dunked on the ’Dores in the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament
Vandy and Tennessee were two of 14 SEC teams to make the tournament, a total that set a record for the most schools invited from a single conference. (The previous record was 11, set by the Big East in 2011.)
The Commodores will face a St. Mary’s team that was ranked No. 19 in the most recent AP poll and No. 21 in the NCAA Net rankings. The Gaels went 17-1 in West Coast Conference play this season and had won eight straight games before falling to Gonzaga in the final of the WCC Tournament.
Vandy will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak, which followed three straight wins over ranked teams. First-year Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington expects his team to be at full health for the tournament, after guards MJ Collins and Grant Huffman were slowed by injury in recent games.
The Commodores last won an NCAA Tournament game in 2012, when they beat Harvard before falling to Wisconsin.
Lipscomb will be a decided underdog against the Cyclones, who were ranked No. 12 in the latest AP poll and No. 9 in the NCAA Net rankings. But Iowa State will be without injured guard Keshon Gilbert, who averaged 13.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and a team-high 4.1 assists this season.
The Bisons are led by forward Jacob Ognacevic, who leads the team in scoring (20.1 points per game) and rebounding (8.1 points per game).
Tennessee takes on a Wofford team that wasn’t expected to make the NCAA Tournament. The Terriers finished sixth in the Big South Conference with a 10-8 record during the regular season, but won the conference tournament, beating Furman in the final.
The Vols have been one of the nation’s most consistently strong teams under Rick Barnes, winning at least 25 games in six of Barnes’ 10 seasons. But Tennessee has never advanced to the Final Four, losing last year to Purdue in a regional final.
Memphis is in the tournament for the third time in four years under coach Penny Hardaway. The Tigers lost to Florida Atlantic in a first-round game in 2023, the team’s last trip to the Big Dance.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
